soundcore Anker Flare 2 Bluetooth Speaker with IPX7 Protection, 360° Sound for Outdoor, Garden, Beach, Holiday, with PartyCast, EQ Regulation and 12 Hours Battery Life

The Sound performance is good for the price and size of the speaker, though at maximum volume there is a bit of distortion.The battery life seems OK - I would emphasise that it is up to 12 hours. I'd say if you have it at around 50% volume it'll last 12 hours just fine, but if it's near max it will come down a fair bit. Those invested in the Anker/Soundcore brand probably have a power bank to supplement this though.I was able to turn the lights off using the SoundCore app just fine (other reviews said they had problems with this.) I prefer the lights on, but I wish there was an option to have the light slowly transition between different colours. Personally I've found the default lighting effects to be a bit jarring as they try to flicker in time with the beat of the music it seems.I was a little bit disappointed because the original Flare had a 3.5mm Audio jack which guaranteed perfect latency if you were to, for example, play video game or film audio through it.Also, the original Flare could be also be paired with a second speaker for Stereo, is this missing..?__________________________________________________________________________Edit: 11/05/2020Anker have very kindly reached out to offer a second Soundcore Flare 2 speaker, as the original Flare speaker could not be paired with the Flare 2 in either PartyCast or Stereo mode.Having two Flare 2 speakers in PartyCast sync sounds great. Connecting the two of them was very straightforward, and their lighting scheme synced automatically. Operating the controls on a single speaker affects all of them, which is a welcome feature. It may be out of scope, but it would be fantastic to be able to set individual volumes on each speaker, for example if you wanted a different music volume in each room of your home in a party.The only minor improvements I would suggest would to be to have a setting which stops the lights flickering in sync with the beat of the music - but this is minor, and there are lighting settings which don't use this, but it would be nice to have them for all of them.If you did need a 3.5mm audio jack I would recommend the original Flare, as I owned that as well and it was also great.

I was looking for an inexpensive bluetooth speaker mainly to use while sitting in the garden, rather than wearing headphones, Not knowing what to buy i did some research on you Tube and amazon reviews and chose the Flare 2.Straight from the off the speaker is well presented in great packaging and comes with usb charging lead. Linked it to my iPhone and instantly the sound is pure class. Looking at the reviews experts state that the sound quality is a bit this and a bit that but i can tell you that i love music and if i thought that the sound was poor quality i just would not be able to use it, so i think some reviews go a bit over technical. The speaker is a nice size and has lights around the top and bottom which also makes it a nice feature, Also you can download an app that gives you different features to use your speaker. All in all this is a fantastic product and iam so glad i chose the Flare 2.

Sound quality seems good for size / price.However..As this a new version of the Flare I mistakenly thought it would retain functionality of the original model (I did notice though that this one only has a bluetooth connection) - but with a bigger battery, slightly higher output and additional lights (which personally don't require) plus USB-C charging.From reviews of the original Flare I has established that the lights could be switched off permanently - and I also noted that a second device could be paired for stereo.After I received the Flare 2 I could not find a way to disable the lights and contacted Anker support - but apparently this is by design as the on/off button no longer has a light. They advised me this may be addressed in the future by a firmware update (to their credit they do seem to take note of customer feedback).The other feature I now realize is now missing is the ability to pair a second device for Stereo.So overall a bit disappointed.Update: Anker have generously supplied a second Flare2 to demonstrate capability of an additional speaker. I can confirm that two do provide a louder and more room filling sound and do sound quite good - but at lower levels for personal listening I found a single speaker preferable. As soon as 'party mode' is selected each speaker becomes mono which I find noticeable - so it depends on personal priorities. My phone is capable of audio output to two Bluetooth devices (so both are in stereo) and I found that by directing left / right channel of each speaker towards the listening point it provides a reasonable stereo effect. I have updated my rating as overall sound is still good but it would be 5 starts with proper stereo pairing.

This speaker has fallen in the hot tub a couple of times, and still performs as if it were brand new!Most of the time, it sits happily in the lounge for using with audio books and the occasional music playback. The adjustable sound levels via the app is better since they recently updated the app to be more user friendly.The lights are a nice little gimmick, but I've turned those off to reduce distraction and to maybe squeeze a little more battery life out of it. The battery seems to be fine, I don't have to charge it often.We have a few different soundcore speakers at home, the minis, the soundcore 2 and 3, this is another one we're happy with!

I had to give up looking for a smart speaker for the kitchen. They were too big, or had a short power lead, or just weren't compatible with all our audio sources.This little speaker is great. I can run it from a usb socket or battery, play anything I want off an Android phone, and if I forget to put the lid on the blender, I can just rinse it off under the tap. Not to mention I can take it with me for music whe building, decorating, gardening, or taking a bath.The sound quality is great (for a small speaker) and it's really easy to use. I get caught out sometimes if the battery has run low - it's not obvious how much charge is remaining.